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Hedgewitch Days!

December 1, 2014/

Merry Meet my lovelies,

I am chuffed to bits to be able to have a natter with you here on Pagan pages!

Let me introduce myself…My name is Mandy and I am a Mum, Grandma, Wife, Sister, Friend, Jack of all trades, fur baby slave, Oh and a Hedgewitch! I live in the boundaries of the magical county of Wiltshire UK, home to Stonehenge (yep, you all know that one), Avebury Stone circle and numerous other magical and ancient sites I hope to be able to share with you over time! The landscape here is a typical English country scene of green hills and fields, rivers and streams with an abundance of flora and fauna all begging to be used! Market towns and villages nestle comfortably with sacred mounds and pathways of our ancestors….I know, sounds amazing doesn’t it?

But, and there is a but attached to all these amazing things, I am human! As all of us are in this modern world so busy, our world of magic is so different to the one of our ancestors. The paths we walk tend to be concrete on the way to work or to the shops, not the rolling landscape walked in reverence by our ancient forefathers. We are bound by the hands of the clock not the movement of the sun and moon…no parents evening at any school would make appointments based on the slide upwards of the moon, complete breakdowns of teachers and parents alike would ensue!

All of us on the natural path that we follow face a constant internal battle with how we manage to live our beliefs. We will never be able to float around dealing with all things magic in today’s world, and the stress of trying to do so is enough to send the calmest of beings into a quivering mess in the corner. At best, we could only hope to carry with us the feelings of never quite being able to give 100% to ANYTHING we do, and guilt can be such a crushing and disabling emotion. As a Mum and a Grandma my guilt metre is, as I imagine yours is too, already off the scale most days, even the simplest of tasks can become a minefield of decisions where the outcome is never totally fair, and the best you can strive for is a happy medium!!! It is in this twilight zone between ancient ways and modern life where I think the thoroughly modern Hedgewitch can thrive very nicely thank you very much.

As a Hedgewitch my motto is simple, to make each day more magical! I think we are definitely masters of multitasking and using whatever’s to hand to get the job done…and there is no shame in that. Given the opportunity we would all choose to heal with nature but as modern people we embrace the fact that we now don’t have to go and seek out a piece of willow bark to chew on to sort out that blinding headache, science and it’s advancements mean that someone much cleverer has used that active healing ingredient inside the bark, given it a bit of a mix up and made it readily available for us to use in the form of Aspirin. I am completely confident that had that been the case in our ancestors’ time they would have jumped at the chance to put their feet up of a bit, get rid of that headache and embrace the new remedy. We are an adaptable bunch us humans really!!!

So the battle between the old ways and the new inside of us really is a waste of our emotions, which would be put too much better use in our spell work! So next time you have to take an Aspirin try looking at it in a different way. Make it a magical ritual in its own right!

Ritual for the headache!

You will need;

1 Blinding headache!

1 Dissolvable Aspirin

1 Glass of water.

Select a glass and fill with fresh water from the tap.

(As the water flows really focus on the magical properties of the water, quenching and life giving, soothing and pure. Focus on how the glass feels in your hand, the weight of it, of how the water changes the way the light is seen through it)

Hold the Aspirin in your hand.

(Focus on the magical past of its main ingredient. See the ancient Willow tree blowing gently by a river, nodding its approval as its healing bark is gathered for medicinal use. Give thanks and blessings to the tree for its gift and send blessings all the scientists that have worked with this magical tree to create something to cure you).

Drop the Aspirin in to the glass and allow to dissolve.

(As you watch the tablet dissolve say some simple words like; ‘As you dissolve and melt away, please do the same for my headache today!’ As the tablet is melting focus on it working in the same way with your pain. )

Drink the Aspirin water.

(Imagine the healing liquid flowing into you, filling you with the spirit of the Willow tree, washing away all pain and leaving you with a sense of peace and wellbeing).

(So mote it be!)

If you follow the instructions for taking an Aspirin by doing the things that are underlined (as most would do) it is a simple everyday task, but, if you follow the instructions in the brackets it becomes a really simple ritual filled with magical focus and intent. The fact that you didn’t go out foraging for two hours to find the bark doesn’t make it any less magical, or any less effective! I think I may be employing this simple ritual over the coming festival of Yule / Christmas…I need all I the help I can get with a hangover these days!!!

So I love the difference that a Hedgewitch can bring to an everyday task to make it magical, even if it is part of this busy, modern world in which we live. Of course I do try, with some varying degree of success, to forage as much as I can, celebrate the festivals, moons and old ways and cook magically too… I hope that through this column we can travel down the thoroughly modern road of todays’ Hedgewitch, stop kicking ourselves all the time about juggling magic and the real world and have a chuckle together, after all that is one of the best magical cures ever, don’t you think guys?